John Cusack

Engaging and accessible onscreen, protective and guarded in private, actor John Cusack built an exceptional career by making unusual film choices and steering clear of the Hollywood machine. Originall...
Read More...

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Nicole Kidman set for top honour at Shanghai Film Festival

By:
WENN.com
Jun 13, 2014

Nicole Kidman is to be honoured with an outstanding contribution award at the Shanghai International Film Festival in China. Hugh Grant and John Woo will present the Australian actress with her latest accolade at the opening ceremony on Saturday (14Jun14), while artist Qin Yi will honour Jiang Wen with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Film Award.
Kidman will be hoping this film festival will be a better experience than her visit to Cannes last month (May14), when her new film Grace of Monaco was savaged by critics.
Kirsten Dunst, John Cusack, Hayden Christensen, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, Li Bingbing and Korean superstar Rain are expected to attend the opening gala, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film festival will open with a restored version of 1964 movie Two Stage Sisters and close with Transformers: Age of Extinction. A jury led by actress Gong Li will decide the winner of the Golden Goblet from the 15 films in competition.

Prospero Pictures/eOne Entertainment
It's the beginning of the summer, which means it's time for Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars to make their way to the French Riviera for the Cannes Film Festival, while the rest of us look on with jealousy. But just because you didn't snag a ticket to the most glamorous film event of the year, that doesn't mean you can't keep up with all of the big films premiering over the next two weeks. To help you stay on top of things, we're running down the biggest films that premiered in competition at the festival, including the latest from David Cronenberg, Steve Carell's potential Oscar vehicle and the high-profile movie that opened to worse reviews than Grace of Monaco.
Lost RiverActor Ryan Gosling's dreamy and feverish directorial debut follows Billy (Christina Hendricks) and her son Bones (Ian De Caestecker) as they struggle to survive the economically devastated Detroit-like city of Lost River. Billy goes to desperate lengths to keep her childhood home while Bones resorts to scavenging from local abandoned houses, but a local madman named Bully (Matt Smith) has claimed the entire neighborhood for himself. Lost River screened in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes and was met with mostly boos from the audience. Many critics have cited Gosling's ambition, but have accused the first time director of being derivative of other, more seasoned filmmakers.
“'Lost' is indeed the operative word for this violent fairy tale about a fractured family trying to survive among the ruins of a city overrun by thugs, sexual predators and other demons, nearly all of them cribbed from the surreal cinematic imaginations of other, vastly more intuitive filmmakers. It’s perversely admirable to the extent that Gosling has certainly put himself out there, sans shame or apology, but train-wreck fascination will go only so far to turn this misguided passion project into an item of even remote commercial interest." - Justin Chang, Variety
"The visuals are undeniably dreamy, but they mostly seem borrowed from other filmmakers’ dreams. There’s a Twin Peaks feel of an alternate, off-kilter world to the whole thing, one in which arbitrary, quasi-surrealistic images barge in, sometimes for symbolic reasons, at other times arbitrarily. Many of them relate to ruin and decay—civic, environmental, bodily—and there is a sense of the ghosts who occupy both the ruined homes and the underwater town. As beautifully presented as the imagery is, however, none of it registers deeply because it all seems like borrowed goods. It’s flashy enough to engage the eye, but the experience is akin to flipping through a gorgeous art photography book featuring an assortment of artists rather than one. " - Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
Maps to the Stars David Cronenberg’s latest film follows Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman who was disfigured in a fire, and moves to LA in an attempt to reconnect with her family… even if they don’t want to reconnect with her. Along the way she befriends a limo driver (Robert Pattinson) and gets a job working for a washed-up movie star Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), who is attempting to land the lead role in a remake of a film that once starred her mother (Sarah Gadon). Meanwhile, Havana's shrink (John Cusack) is raising tween megastar Benjie Weiss (Evan Bird), who at 13 is fresh out of rehab and whose fame allows him to get away with just about anything.
“If Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve and Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon took a bunch of prescription medication, had a two-day three-way and conceived a child, nine months later the child would look something like "Map To The Stars. […] Hollywood's seemed pretty rotten from the off in the film, but as Cronenberg exposes its stinking maggoty core of ghosts, sexual deviancy and cover-ups, the film takes on a nightmarish K-hole tone of its own, while remaining darkly, bitterly funny to the last. LA's rarely seemed as unappealing on screen, which is quite the feat.” – Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist
“David Cronenberg's new film here at Cannes is a gripping and exquisitely horrible movie about contemporary Hollywood – positively vivisectional in its sadism and scorn. It is twisted, twisty, and very far from all the predictable outsider platitudes about celebrity culture. The status-anxiety, fame-vertigo, sexual satiety and that all-encompassing fear of failure which poisons every triumph are displayed here with an icy new connoisseurship, a kind of extremism which faces down the traditional objection that films like this are secretly infatuated with their subject.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Foxcatcher Based on the true story of the murder of wrestler Dave Schultz, Foxcatcher has emerged from the festival as a major player in next year's Oscars race. Channing Tatum stars as Mark Schultz, an Olympic wrestler who has long lived in the shadow of his older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). When Mark gets an invitation from multimillionaire John E. duPont (Steve Carell) to move into his home and train at his facilities, his relationship with his new benefactor turns out ot have dangerous consequences.
"Despite its hefty 134-minute running time, “Foxcatcher” doesn’t have an ounce of the proverbial narrative fat [...] Crucially, this meticulously researched picture feels as authentic in its understanding of character as it does in its unvarnished re-creation of the world of Olympic sports in the late ’80s; rarely onscreen has the art of wrestling, centered around the violent yet intimate spectacle of men’s bodies in furious collision, provided so transfixing a metaphor for the emotional undercurrents raging beneath the surface." - Justin Chang, Variety
"Centered on an astonishing and utterly unexpected serious turn by Steve Carell, this beautifully modulated work has a great deal on its mind about America's privileged class, usurious relationships, men's ways of proving themselves, brotherly bonds and how deeply sublimated urges can assert themselves in the most unsavory ways." - Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
Saint LaurentFocused on the life and career of Yves Saint Laurent (Gaspard Ulliel), the film charts the designer's rise to fame and his relationship with his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge (Jeremie Renier). Written and directed by Bertrand Bonello, it's one of several high-profile biopics in contention at Cannes this year, although similarities to another recent Saint Laurent movie may have been its downfall with critics, as it only earned mixed reviews.
"The point could be to show what it all cost Saint Laurent - and yet it doesn't actually seem to have cost him that much: he grows to a pampered old age, not very conspicuously interested in anyone or anything but his dog. Perhaps it is that they are entirely without affect, like a tableau by Warhol, who writes Saint Laurent a fan letter here. Finally, Saint Laurent is a well made but bafflingly airless and claustrophobic film, like being with fashion's very own Tutenkhamen , living and dying inside his own richly appointed tomb - and sentimentally indulged to the last." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Perhaps through time this hallucinatory quasi-dream of a biopic will grow in stature, but as first impressions go, the film loves itself so much it renders itself beautiful, but utterly shallow. The messy structure, which includes further time jumps in the future – a random introduction of an older Saint Laurent, the Pierre Berge-handling business affairs at irregular intermissions between exploration of a bored genius, and animal cruelty in the form of a pug OD’ing on pills – doesn’t do the film any favors." - Nikola Grozdanovic, The Playlist
Ego Film Arts/The Film Farm
The Captive Atom Egoyan's latest film centers on the kidnapping of a teenage girl, and the torture that her captor puts her parents through. Eight years after Cass (Alexia Fast) disappeared, her parents (Ryan Reynolds and Mireille Enos) discover disturbing new evidence that leads them to believe that she's still alive, and they desperately attempt to get the police to take their case seriously. The film, which was perceived by many to be a comeback vehicle for both Reynolds and Eyogan, premiered to largely negative reviews, putting it up against Grace of Monaco and Lost River for the biggest disappointment of the festival.
"The plotting here is so hopelessly tangled, clichéd, and bereft of psychological complexity that it's difficult to care what happens to any of these people. That goes even for poor Cass, who seems at times to have a touch of Stockholm syndrome but otherwise just looks bored sitting around on the pink princess bed she's outgrown. As Mika's antics become more bizarre and her distraught dad out of nowhere starts outsmarting her tormentors, the movie goes from uninvolving to risible." - David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
"Any other year, in any other context, The Captive would simply be another overcooked rote thriller that, like so many other films in this genre, totally loses the run of itself in the final act (seriously, Kevin Durand goes so Bond villain that he even has a female henchperson sidekick). [...] Instead, right down to the nearly synonymous title we get a lurid, silly Prisoners me-too (and that film itself was far from flawless) in which the only additions are a flashback-and-forward structure that never works, the kind of contrivance in which a laptop camera accidentally left transmitting records a crucial conversation (perfectly framed) and a crude, distastefully regressive subtheme which suggests that well, of course that this is what happens to girls and to women (even successful, intelligent, independent women) when they are left alone even for a moment by their menfolk." - Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
The Homesman Co-written, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman follows a claim jumper and a pioneer woman (Hilary Swank), who accompany three insane women - played by Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter - across the border into Iowa. Like several other Cannes contenders, the film has already been receiving awards buzz, thanks to Jones' direction and a powerhouse lead performance from Swank.
"Unlike other actor-directors, Jones never seems to indulge excess on the part of his cast. Though the characters are strong, the performances are understated. Even the three ladies settle into a state of near-catatonia after awhile, rather than indulging their various “hysterias.” In the past, people have whispered about Jones’ attitudes toward women; with this film, he says a thing or two on the subject with a sensitivity that comes as a welcome surprise." - Peter Debruge, Variety
"This is a frontier tale with something of the classic style of Stagecoach or 3:10 to Yuma, but also the consciously grimmer, austerer feel of Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff and indeed Lee Jones's own The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. And it is a frontier tale which is swimming against the generic current: most stories like these are about heading west. This is about a trudge in the opposite direction." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Follow @hollywood_com
//
Follow @julesemm
//

A gatecrasher stole the limelight from Robert Pattinson and Julianne Moore at the Cannes Film Festival in France by stripping off and baring her breasts on the red carpet. The Hollywood stars had gathered for the debut of David Cronenberg's new movie Map To The Stars on Monday (19May14) when an unexpected guest caused a stir.
A topless woman in a blonde wig, badly-applied lipstick and wearing just one shoe walked the red carpet, with tape bearing the world 'fragile' wrapped around her bottom half. Fellow guests were spotted laughing at the spectacle, but it is not known if the movie's cast, which also includes Mia Wasikowska and John Cusack, were aware of the incident.
The woman posed for photographers before she was escorted away from the event by security guards. Her identity has not yet been revealed. It is the latest prank to hit Cannes - Ukrainian journalist Vitalii Sediuk was detained by cops on Friday (16May14) after he dashed onto the red carpet and climbed under America Ferrera's long dress as she posed for photographers alongside her How to Train Your Dragon 2 castmates.

20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
There are certain songs that transport you back to movie scenes as soon as you hear them. Sometimes that makes you feel warm inside, sometimes it inspires you, and other times it gives you the willies. We're taking a look at the songs that we can't help but associate with the big screen, toucing on the greatest inspirational songs in films and the creepiest uses of pop songs in movies. Here, though, we take a look at the songs in movie scenes that touched our romantic hearts.
"Unchained Melody" in Ghost
"Oh, my love... My darling… I've hungered for your touch..." The song was a hit for The Righteous Brothers long before the movie was made, but ever since that opening line and Bobby Hatfield's falsetto can only mean one thing… Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and a pottery wheel.
"Must've Been Love" in Pretty Woman
Roxette's hit from the Julia Roberts film still calls to mind a tangle of red curls looking hopefully out of the back window of a limousine and a sadly dapper Richard Gere looking forlornly from his balcony.
"You Make My Dreams" in (500) Days of Summer
It wasn't the first time that Hall &amp; Oates song was used in a movie, but just try playing it now without thinking about Joseph Gordon-Levitt happily dancing down the street after his hook-up with Zooey Deschanel.
"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in The Lion King
Yes, it's a Disney movie, but it's also Elton John. The song is so linked to the image of lions falling in love that Sir Elton frequently plays the animated clip on screen when he sings it in concert.
"Falling Slowly" in Once
Even if it hadn't subsequently become the centerpiece of the Tony-winning Broadway musical version, the duet by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová in John Carney's movie would still be just as sweet.
"Iris" in City of Angels
The movie about Nicolas Cage's angel who falls in love with Meg Ryan's mortal would probably have faded from memory entirely if not for John Rzeznik's plaintive voice on The Goo Goo Dolls hit.
"When You Say Nothing at All" in Notting Hill
Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts climb over a fence to wander in an English garden. As they share a moment, Ronan Keating's version of the country song plays and suddenly they're the only two people in the world.
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" in Dirty Dancing
When Jennifer Warren sang with Joe Cocker for An Officer and a Gentleman, only the instrumental version of their "Up Where We Belong" played over the climactic scene (similar to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic). In Dirty Dancing, however, Warren's duet with Bill Medley is front and center as Swayze pulls Jennifer Grey's Baby out of the corner.
"I Will Always Love You" in The Bodyguard
Regardless of what you think of her acting, Whitney Houston could sing. We're not sure that we would stop a plane to go kiss Kevin Costner, but we'll watch it all day if we can hear the song and Houston's amazing voice again.
"In Your Eyes" in Say Anything…
According to both parties, John Cusack lobbied director Cameron Crowe to have a Fishbone song playing as his lovesick Lloyd Dobler held his boombox aloft to get Ione Skye's attention. Thankfully, Crowe opted to keep the Peter Gabriel classic.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

Buena Vista Pictures via Everett Collection
It's that time of year again when young men and women sit in cap and gown waiting for the speeches to be over so that they can get their diploma and move on with their lives. Everyone at some point in time has sat and listened to a speaker try to impart words of wisdom on high school or college graduates — many celebrities have taken a turn delivering such an address — and movies have frequently used a commencement speech as a plot device.
There is a lot more life lessons to be gained from high school and college movies, however, than just when a character stands up at a podium and speaks to the gathered masses. What if you could build an inspirational speech from those movies to serve as a killer send off to graduates? Let's give it a shot.
You Don't Have to Know Everything Now
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), the hero of Say Anything…, took a unique tact in trying to figure out what to do with his life. Instead of focusing on what he wanted to do, he first eliminated all of the things that he didn't want to do. There's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone comes up with a workable life plan in high school or college… some people need more time to find their niche. That's perfectly fine, just as long as you're out of your parents' basement by 28.
Take a Stand
Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) delivered a whole bunch of lessons to Daniel-san (Ralph Macchio) in The Karate Kid… but "Wax on, Wax off" doesn’t translate that well to a speech. So, we're going with his example of what happens when someone tries to go at things half-heartedly. As Miyagi so eloquently put it, "Squashed like grape."
Don't Make Excuses
Jaime Escalante, the teacher portrayed by Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, was a real-life inspirational figure, devoting his entire life to teaching impoverished youths. When Escalante first meets his class in the movie, he tells them that he doesn't want to hear excuses because their future bosses aren't going to want to hear them. True that.
Seize the Day
Robin Williams's professor in Dead Poets Society was basically a walking speech. Hell he was a bona fide encyclopedia of lessons. But when he reminds his young charges that the pictures on the wall were once in the same position with their entire lives in front of them, audiences everywhere heard what they were whispering. Carpe diem indeed.
Don't Let the Moment Be Too Big
When the Hickory High basketball team arrives for the state finals in Hoosiers, Gene Hackman gives a demonstration to show that the court in the bigger building isn't really any larger than the one in their home gym… that just because it seems bigger doesn't mean that it is. Keeping things in perspective is always a good idea.
We Really Are All the Same
When Anna Kendrick cries at the end of a viewing of The Breakfast Club in Pitch Perfect it's a seminal moment for her character and we understand why. The realization that we are all a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal is still mighty darn powerful.
Always Remember to Have Passion
We'll let Williams' John Keating have the last word, especially since he really did do a lot of speechifying during Dead Poets Society. Life without passion is an empty vessel. Whether or not you believe, like Keating, that poetry is a necessary part of that passion is irrelevant. Having passion about something is what makes life worth living.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

NBC Universal Media/Getty Images
Over the almost 50 years of Saturday Night Live, there have been plenty of seasons that were good (more than most casual observers would like to admit) and bad (some spectacularly so). There was, though, only one 1984: quite possibly the strangest season in the history of the show.
With Eddie Murphy completely gone to pursue his superstar movie career and the second most recognizable cast member, Joe Piscopo, having worn out his welcome after the 1983 - '84 season, executive producer Dick Ebersol was left without a star. The remaining cast members, including a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jim Belushi, had never quite fit in with the show and were largely dissatisfied with the way that they had been treated. Many people figured that Murphy leaving would finally signal the death knell for SNL.
Righting a Wrong
Instead of trying to develop another young talent like Murphy, Ebersol turned to more established comedians, including one who had almost been part of the original SNL cast. By 1984, Billy Crystal was already a well known entertainer after his stint on the sitcom Soap and his numerous talk show appearances where he imitated celebrities like boxer Mohammed Ali, but in 1974 Crystal had been cut from the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on the eve of the show's debut. Why that happened depends largely on who tells the story, but whatever the case, when Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd rocketed to fame, Crystal wasn’t with them. Nor was he offered the spot that went to Bill Murray when Chase left after the first season. Ten years later, Crystal was finally being given the chance to right what he considered a wrong.
The Rest of the Gang
Along with Crystal, Ebersol brought in Martin Short, who had already been a cast member of Canada's SCTV (which launched the careers of John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Catherine O'Hara), as well as Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, fresh off their success in This Is Spinal Tap. Rich Hall, who had been part of an ensemble HBO comedy show called Not Necessarily the News, and Pamela Stephenson, who had been on the British precursor (Not the Nine O'clock News) of Hall's HBO show rounded out the new cast members. It was an odd turn of events considering that Crystal hosted SNL twice the season before he joined the cast, while Guest and Shearer had made a guest appearance as part of Spinal Tap.
The Season
Crystal, Short, and Guest wasted little time putting their stamp on the creative vacuum that they walked into. Ebersol was by all accounts a very good network executive, but he was not a comedian and didn’t come from a creative background. By the season opener, Crystal was already doing his Fernando Lamas impression ("You look mah-velous!") and Short had brought his Ed Grimley character with him from SCTV. By the third show, Crystal and Guest had worked up a breakout routine with their characters Willie and Frankie, who would continuously one-up each other with pain-inducing practices ("I hate it when that happens"). The show never missed a chance to exploit the new popular sketches — a hallmark of the Ebersol era — with Crystal doing his Fernando so frequently that the character almost deserved a separate credit in the opening theme.
More than any season before or since, the show relied on pre-taped segments, with Guest, Shearer, and Short preferring to work that way. While it went against the grain of SNL, some of the short films, particularly Shearer and Short playing aspiring male synchronized swimmers and Guest and Crystal portraying aged Negro League baseball stars were as good as anything that the show had produced.
The Oddness
Perhaps the best remembered episode of the season is the one hosted by wrestler Hulk Hogan and Mr. T to promote the first Wrestlemania. In the most famous segment, the pair appears with Crystal on his "Fernando Hideaway" sketch and can't keep a straight face. While Murphy returned to host and the Beatles' Ringo Starr took a turn, the other hosts included figures like Jesse Jackson, Howard Cosell, and Bob Uecker. The first show of the season didn't even have a host.
Additionally, there was little continuity with the show's fake news segment — called "Saturday Night News" instead of "Weekend Update" — with the show's host sometimes doing the anchoring and real newscaster Edwin Newman sitting in once before Guest finally took over midway through the season.
In stark contrast to the hosts, the seasons musical guests were a who's who of mid-80s pop, with acts like The Thompson Twins, Billy Ocean, Bryan Adams, and super-groups The Honey Drippers (featuring Robert Plant), and Power Station (featuring Robert Palmer) all making appearances.
The Aftermath
When an industry-wide writers' strike halted production in early March 1985, the show didn’t return from the forced hiatus. The abbreviated season ended after just 17 episodes. NBC was unhappy with spiraling production costs and Ebersol was unhappy with his creative staff. Shearer had quit the show in January citing creative differences ("I was creative and they were different," he said later). Short and Guest didn't want to keep doing a live show. Louis-Dreyfus and Belushi (along with fellow holdover Mary Gross) had been used so little throughout the season that they wanted out. Crystal, enjoying the biggest success of his career, was seemingly the only one who wanted it to continue.
Ebersol demanded a retooling, wanting to change the format to a completely taped show and with possibly a fixed rotation of guest hosts (his ideas for the rotation included Piscopo and David Letterman). Instead, NBC briefly canceled the show. After rethinking things, the network's executives decided that they would agree to give SNL another chance… if its original creator, Lorne Michaels, would take back over.
Then and Now
Eventually, Michaels agreed to return to the show and retained none of the cast or writers from the previous season. Taking a page from Ebersol's book, Michaels tried to use established actors like Randy Quaid and Anthony Michael Hall (along with Robert Downey Jr. and Joan Cusack) to re-launch the show… which very nearly did lead to the show being canceled permanently. It wasn't until the following season when Michaels entrusted SNL to virtual unknowns like Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Jan Hooks, and Dennis Miller that the show started the run that finally established it as the institution it has become.
The goodwill that the show had gained from Crystal, Short and Guest's lone season helped carry it through Michaels' disastrous first season back. Thirty years later, the 1984 - '85 season remains an oddly alluring anomaly in the long comedic history of SNL.

Zach Braff's stage adaptation of Woody Allen's 1994 crime caper Bullets Over Broadway has fallen flat with critics. The comedy film, which starred John Cusack and Dianne Wiest, has been adapted for the Broadway stage with Scrubs star Braff in the lead role, but the show failed to impress reviewers when it opened at the St. James Theatre on Thursday night (10Apr14).
The New York Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz called the production a "bit of a miss", adding, "Allen's showbiz and gangland eccentrics stiffen into cardboard when they're amplified from two to three dimensions... It doesn't help that key actors shoot blanks... Beyond mediocre acting is the poor choice at the center of this jukebox musical."
Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times criticises the "coarseness of some of the humour" as well as the actors' performances, while Variety's Marilyn Stasio adds, "Everyone hoped Bullets Over Broadway would be the show to get those flickering Broadway lights blazing again... Surprisingly, though... (it) is feeble on laughs, and certain key performers don't seem comfortable... So, let's call it close - but no cigar."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times also criticised the show, adding, "While the movie was a helium-light charmer, this all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing reincarnation is also all but charm-free... The experience of watching the film was like being tickled, gently but steadily, into a state of mounting hysteria... The musical version... feels more like being head-butted by linebackers. Make that linebackers in blinding sequins."
The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney concludes by urging theatre fans to rent a copy of the movie instead: "Spend five bucks to rent the delightful movie or north of a hundred to watch its buoyancy get trampled in a strained musical? Not a tough choice."

Paramount via Everett Collection
We all know the saying about how you can't pick your relatives but you can pick your friends. Unfortunately, in high school, most people are limited to those other poor souls that are slouching through the halls to get from class to class.
Every teen movie made has seemingly adhered to some form of the cliques that occur in high school, those groupings based on looks, interests or intelligence that make up the social caste system. What if, however, you could make your own clique, using characters from those films that fit into those stereotypical profiles? It would certainly have made for a more entertaining high school experience, as well as at least one killer party. Who would we pick? Here's our choices...
VIEW GALLERY: The Ultimate Teen Movie High School Clique
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

Universal Pictures
Writer-director John Hughes was the master of the teen movie in the '80s, scoring hits with The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, and Weird Science, and working with a veritable "who's who" of young '80s actors (Matthew Broderick, Kevin Bacon, Robert Downey Jr., John Cusack, Bill Paxton, Charlie Sheen, etc.).
His teen muse, however, was Molly Ringwald. The young redhead was the star of his directorial debut, Sixteen Candles, and was the inspiration behind Pretty in Pink, which Hughes' wrote and produced. It's been 30 years since the release of Sixteen Candles and 28 since Pretty in Pink, yet each movie has maintained an audience across the decades. Which one, though, is more relevant if you were seeing it for the first time right now?
Sixteen Candles
Ringwald's Samantha Baker is having a terrible 16th birthday. Her parents forgot it entirely. Her grandparents, who are in town for her sister's wedding, are commenting about her "boobies" and bring along a horndog foreign exchange student (Gedde Watanabe). She's got a freshman geek (Anthony Michael Hall) chasing after her, and in exchange for leaving her alone takes a pair of her panties to show off to the other nerds... for a dollar apiece. Worse than all of the other indignities, though, is the fact that she's totally in love with a senior (Michael Schoeffling) who's dating the most popular girl in school (Haviland Morris).
In other words, it's just about every teen girl's worst nightmare, something that really hasn't changed much in the ensuing years. The film is fanciful and fun, with jokes that are both clever and corny. It's the sort of movie that provides mothers and daughters talking points for everything from love to sex to body image issues. Feeling like you're completely on your own as a teenager and that nobody really cares about or appreciates you is a rite of passage for everyone, as are those first heart-stopping crushes. Youthful insecurity is fairly timeless.
Pretty in Pink
Hughes took a (slightly) more grounded view of a young girl's high school experience in Pink. Ringwald plays Andie, a girl from the poor side of town who makes her own clothes and has to take care of her down-on-his-luck father (Harry Dean Stanton). She works in a music store and hangs out with an eccentric friend named Duckie (Jon Cryer), as she tries to just make it through until she can go to college for fashion design. But then she falls for one of the rich kids (Andrew McCarthy), and has to deal with the very obvious class distinctions that are continually pointed out by his obnoxious friend (James Spader). Unlike the lead in Sixteen Candles, Andie doesn't need recognition from anyone, definitely doesn't want to be pitied ,and is perfectly capable of standing up for herself. She's conscious of Duckie's feelings, but she neither patronizes him nor leads him on. When McCarthy's Blane backs out of their prom date, she goes it alone (and, okay, with a little help from the Duck).
Essentially, Andie is that quiet girl in high school who blossoms in college and doesn’t go to reunions because she's too busy with a great career. It's a little hard to get past the very '80s wardrobe, although it has a killer soundtrack (OMD's "If You Leave" still makes anyone over 40 nostalgic for their own prom). In the end, though, Andie is a realistic teen heroine who, unlike say Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games, navigates through a world that is not terribly different from the present and does it by empowering herself. That's not a bad lesson for any young woman to learn.
Both of the teen classics have relevance to a modern audience in their own way, although the jokiness of Sixteen Candles probably helps it translate a little bit easier. That’s what we think, but now it's your chance. Vote below to tell us which of Hughes' teen comedies has remained more relevant.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

20th Century Fox Film via Everett Collection
Kissing is as much a part of movies as car chases and sarcastic best friends. All kinds of kisses have been captured on film, but there are some more than others that make us swoon as lovers lips join together.
We're taking a look at the most memorable kisses in film from the '80s on, including the Worst Kisses and the Most Perplexing Kisses. Here, however, are the kisses that made our hearts flutter.
Anna and Kristoff, Frozen
"I could kiss you," Kristoff says as he gleefully picks Anna up in the air. We watched the animated pair bond over an adventure to save her sister, Elsa, from the wrath of hostile villagers. The comment leads to a peck on the check that morphs into an embrace. Disney princesses always get their big kiss, but few are as well earned as Anna's.
Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, While You Were Sleeping
You would expect a couple to have kissed — really kissed, not an under-the-mistletoe peck — prior to getting engaged, but such was not the case for Bullock's Lucy and her true love, Pullman's Jack. Falling in love while she pretended to be the fiancée of his in-a-coma brother, the pair skipped right to the ring after Jack (and his family) realized they couldn't live without Lucy. Sealing a marriage proposal with a kiss has never been sweeter.
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, The Adjustment Bureau
The movie, about a shadow agency that controls everyone's lives, is a bit of a mess. What can't be denied, however, is the crazy chemistry that exists between Damon's politician and Blunt's mystery woman. Blunt follows Damon into the men's room at the Waldorf Astoria and strikes up a conversation about crashing a wedding. How does that lead to a passionate kiss? Well, what else were they going to do in the bathroom?
Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington, Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino is not known for romance, but in his Western epic, Foxx's Django is driven by only one thing: the desire to save his wife, played by Washington, from the clutches of a nefarious slaveowner. When Foxx finally tracks her down, trapped on a plantation owned by Leonardo DiCaprio's bad guy, we're treated to a slow, sweet, reverberating moment as Washington gradually realizes that her love has come for her. The kiss begins within a chilling silhouette until the camera turns to show the passion of lovers reunited.
Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Cera and Dennings' mixed-up teens actually kiss moments after meeting one another, as Dennings asks him to be her boyfriend for "five minutes" so that she can dupe a rival (who happens to be Cera's ex) into believing she isn't dateless. The real kiss, though, comes later on, as Dennings' Norah takes guitar aficionado Nick to see Electric Lady Studios. One thing leads to another and soon Dennings' impossibly full red lips are working overtime.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
Much has been made over the years about the love scenes shared between Ledger and Gyllenhaal, even leading to a hilarious Jonah Hill rant in Knocked Up about the lack of explicitness. The duo brought a palpable passion to the movie in full, but there is something special about the urgency of the scene wherein Ledger's Ennis sees Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist from his apartment window and rushes to embrace him. As Ennis pushes Jack into a stairwell, the two attack each other like a pair of hungry wolves, throwing caution to the wind. Nearly 10 years later, the scene has lost none of its original impact.
John Cusack and Ione Skye, Say Anything...
Few teen romances have been as influential as Cameron Crowe's story of a high-achiever falling for the earnest slacker that dares to ask her out. As you would expect, there are multiple kisses throughout as the duo fall head over heels, including a particularly sweet embrace in the rain. It's when Skye's Diane Court realizes that she needs Cusack's Lloyd Dobler that takes the cake, though. The fact that she kind of distracted him during a sparring session, causing him to get his nose bashed in by Don "The Dragon" Wilson moments before only adds to the tenderness.
Leondardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Titanic
Back in 1997, seemingly every woman on the planet wanted to trade places with Winslet's Rose. The romance aboard the doomed ship left movie audiences teary-eyed long after the credits rolled. In the iconic scene, DiCaprio's Jack takes Rose to the railing of the ship and extends her arms outward, making her feel as though she's... well, why not let her famous line tell the story. "I'm flying, Jack!" Rose exclaims, before Winslet turns backwards to let her lips meet DiCaprio's. No matter what happened after, thanks to Celine Dion, we're always assured that their hearts will go on.
Cary Ewles and Robin Wright, The Princess Bride
"Since the invention of the kiss," Peter Falk's narrarator intones in Rob Reiner's much-loved fantasy, "There have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind." Such is the power of the happy ending smooch that Ewles' Westley lays on Wright's Buttercup. For a guy that was "nearly dead" not long before, and a woman almost forced to marry a prince — not to mention that trip through the fire swamp — that seems like a fitting reward.
Molly Ringwald and Michael Schoeffling, Sixteen Candles
Ringwald's Sam had an epically bad birthday. Her family, preoccupied by her sister's impending wedding, forgets that it's even happening and the geeky Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) has parlayed a pair of her panties into a money-making venture. Worse, she's hopelessly in love with Schoeffling's senior dreamboat, Jake Ryan. As she exits her sister's nuptials and the crowd parts, there is Jake leaning against his sportscar waiting for her. As teen fantasies go, it's a hard one to top. Sam finally gets a birthday cake with the namesake candles and a sweet kiss from Jake to boot. It may have been a bit of a fire hazard, but it sure was romantic.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

Reteamed with Frears for "High Fidelity," playing an immature record-obsessed thirtysomething; based on Nick Hornby's acclaimed novel

Played a simple-minded attorney who tries to steal money from his mob bosses in the "Ice Harvest," directed by Harold Ramis

Cast as Craig Schwartz puppeteer who discovers a portal into the brain of the titular movie actor in Spike Jonze's experimental film "Being John Malkovich"

Teamed romantically onscreen with Kate Beckinsale in "Serendipity"

Played a young, idealistic deputy mayor of New York in the political drama "City Hall"

Cast in small role in Tim Robbins' directorial debut "Bob Roberts"

Starred in the inane comedy "Hot Pursuit"

Directed a stage production of Hunter S Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Played first leading role in Rob Reiner's "The Sure Thing"; first screen teaming with Tim Robbins

Last teen role as cult icon Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything"; sister Joan also starred in film

Screen acting debut as a prep school student in the coming-of-age comedy "Class"

Featured in the ensemble cast of Terrence Malick's sweeping war drama "The Thin Red Line"

Received star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Played Jackson Curtis, a book writer and limo driver in Roland Emmerich's disaster film "2012"

Landed memorable cameo in "Stand By Me," helmed by Rob Reiner

Played supporting role in the period drama "Map of the Human Heart"

Portrayed Edgar Allan Poe in mystery thriller "The Raven"

Played Anjelica Huston's con artist son in Stephen Frears' "The Grifters"

Starred in the Nazi drama feature "Max," written and directed by Menno Meyjes

Formed the film production arm of New Crime Productions with Paramount Pictures

Cast as an ethically corrupt political climber opposite an idealistic James Spader in the drama "True Colors"

Featured in the ensemble "Eight Men Out," John Sayles' film of the 1919 Black Sox scandal

Appeared in industrial films, doing voiceovers in commercials and acting in radio spots by the age of 12

Summary

Engaging and accessible onscreen, protective and guarded in private, actor John Cusack built an exceptional career by making unusual film choices and steering clear of the Hollywood machine. Originally a member of the notorious Brat Pack from the early 1980s, starring in the likes of "Better Off Dead" (1985) and "One Crazy Summer" (1986), Cusack managed to accomplish the rare feat of flourishing as a dramatic actor, beyond the confines of teen comedies. Even during his height as a teen comedy star, Cusack had already been branching out, appearing in John Sayles' "Eight Men Out" (1988) and forming his own Chicago-based theater company. But it was his starring turn in Cameron Crowe's eternal "Say Anything" (1990) that propelled Cusack into the limelight. From then on the actor had his pick of the litter, typically choosing films that fell out of the mainstream, like "Grosse Point Blank" (1997), "Being John Malkovich" (1999) and "High Fidelity" (2000). While he did pepper in the occasional blockbuster, "Con Air" (1997) chief among them, Cusack retained his flare for the unconventional, solidifying his reputation as an actor of high quality and integrity.

Education

Name

Piven Theater Workshop

Evanston Township High School

New York University

Nichols Junior High

Notes

In addition to his large body of film work, Cusack has directed, produced and written for as well as acted on the stage. In 1986 he co-founded New Crime Productions, a Chicago-based troupe specializing in experimental theater. He has staged an adaptation of Hunter S Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and in 1990 won Chicago's Joseph Jefferson citation for his direction of "Methusalem."

"It's sort of a selfish instinct, I'm just trying to make stuff that I would be excited to work in. The worst thing is to wait around and be at the whim of directors and producers who want you to do their thing, who might not have anything to say about your character, but since they are in a position of power, you've gotta work with them for six months. Why not just do it yourself?" – Cusack on trying his hand at different aspects of the film industry to The Los Angeles Times, Oct. 16, 1994

"You want to hear my brilliant strategy? I don't have one. I just see a lot of talented young actors who burn out, or get such a bad rep with their romantic-poetic-destructive bullshit that no one gives them work. They think they have to be Van Gogh and suffer enormously. They don't have the political savvy to make it through. I'm here for the long haul, directing, producing, everything." – Cusack on his status as a respected and successful actor, quoted in Premiere, March 1996

"I find it interesting that people always equate money with success. I thought I was successful; I was working with the best filmmakers, John Sayles, Woody Allen, Stephen Frears. But other people say, 'Why aren't you in those $100 million films?' And I said 'I don't know, I just didn't like the scripts.' [But] you also feel if you wanna make 'Grosse Pointe Blank' and things like that, you play with the system and do one of the big movies. It just gives you more freedom to do what you wanna do." – Cusack on taking on a role in the action blockbuster "Con Air" to Daily News, April 7, 1997

"If I go to Chicago and I go out to dinner, it's in the papers the next day. If you let off steam at someone, even if they deserve it, it's in the papers the next day. So that's kind of a drag, but there's got to be a trade off for being able to create and make a lot of money and get all this opportunity." – Cusack quoted in The Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1999

In 2002, Cusack attended a school board meeting of the Schoolhouse Foundation. He then helped cover the group's administrative costs.

"I'm interested in doing stuff that people I admire do, which is try to explore being human and admit that you're human. At least admit it in film, if you can't do it everyday in life." – Cusack quoted to CNN.com, Nov. 9, 2007

On April 24, 2012, Cusack received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.